Roubo Workbench

This is what triggered my interest in woodworking again. I did some wood shop in Junior High and really enjoyed it, and sometime around 1990 I bought a few power tools and made a few pieces of furniture. For most of my live I’ve been mostly into metalwork, starting from sheet metal metal shaping and building custom cars to blacksmithing, hollowware and even a little jewelry. Then I started building custom motorcycles, started a custom motorcycle parts company and sold my woodworking power tools to pay for starting the chopper parts business. Reading “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” pushed me over the edge and I started reading everything I could about wood work.

One thing led to another, and I convinced my wife to let me go buy a couple of reclaimed Douglas Fir timbers. Surfacing and squaring them up was a lot of work, and I learned all about hand planes, sharpening and heart palpitations.

Reclaimed Douglas Fir beams, destined to become a workbench top

Flattening the rough surface of my benchtop with a scrub plane

After bunches of blog posts and a long break in the build while I built other stuff, I finally finished my bench build, and I absolutely love it. I use it all the time, and I want to build another bench.

Finished workbench with a coat of 3-2-1 finish

The leg vise is an absolute joy to use, the criss-cross glide from Benchcrafted and the wood screw from Lake Eire Toolworks work together in perfect unison.